


Tangled Up

by longleggedgit



Category: Tennis no Oujisama | Prince of Tennis
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-19
Updated: 2014-01-19
Packaged: 2018-01-09 06:29:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 807
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1142614
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/longleggedgit/pseuds/longleggedgit
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kaidoh brings Inui a gift. Or several.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Tangled Up

**Author's Note:**

> Written in 2007.

Even though he's made a career out of carefully observing Kaidoh for more than a year now, Inui has a hard time pinpointing at first what's different about him today.

"Kaidoh," Inui says in mild surprise when Kaidoh is changing his shirt. "You're wearing bracelets." A somewhat asinine observation, but accurate nonetheless.

Kaidoh pauses in the act of pulling his jersey over his head and flushes, glancing at his left wrist. "My little brother made them," he mutters. "They're popular at his school right now."

"I like them," Inui says, smiling. Kaidoh flushes more deeply.

"He won't stop making them," he says once he's fully dressed. "I can bring you some."

Before Inui can thank him, Kaidoh is out the door and on his way to the tennis courts.

~

"Here."

Inui looks up just as a shower of rainbow falls into his lap, handmade bracelets of every color tumbling from Kaidoh's outstretched hands.

"He made me bring all of them," Kaidoh says, staring at the ground. "You can just pick a few you like if you want."

Inui glances at his watch – still thirteen minutes before they have to be on the court for practice – and then catches Kaidoh's eye, flashing him another smile.

"Thank you," he says. Kaidoh hisses, and Inui looks back down at the pile of rainbow. In truth, there are more colors than the obligatory red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet. There are teals, pinks, fuschias, lavenders, and any number of combinations of these. Inui plucks a red-orange out of the pile first, followed by a seafoam green twined with gray.

"I like these two," he announces. Kaidoh gives him a look that is probably trying to convey "Those don't go together at all, senpai," but Inui rather likes his exasperated face, so he doesn't try to choose again.

"I'll show you how to put them on," is what Kaidoh actually says. "Which wrist do you want?"

Inui extends his left, and Kaidoh stoops down to a squatting position at his side. He picks up the red-orange one and wraps it around Inui's wrist, pulling the braided tail end of the bracelet through the opposite loop end. Then he knots it, once, twice, four times, before he lets it go.

"Is that too tight?" Kaidoh asks.

"No, it's perfect," Inui says.

Kaidoh reaches for the next bracelet, a little awkwardly, as it gets tangled up with a few others and he has to fight to pull it lose. Then he starts tying it on just beneath the red-orange one.

"It's nice of you to bring all these," Inui says, watching Kaidoh closely. Kaidoh bows his head and lets out a breath of air.

"It's fine, senpai."

Inui scans the locker room once. They've now dwindled down to eight minutes before practice, and no one else is lingering inside. He remembers to take note of the fact that Kaidoh didn't offer bracelets to any of their other teammates. He wonders if he could put a hand on Kaidoh’s shoulder, if Kaidoh would flinch and back away.

Inui feels a sharp tug from his wrist, and he looks down again just in time to catch Kaidoh's cheeks flare a vibrant red and to hear his murmured "Shit." Kaidoh has somehow managed to tie the seafoam bracelet and his own royal blue one together. Their wrists are practically handcuffed, close enough that Inui can make out Kaidoh's pulse.

"Sorry," Kaidoh says in a panicky voice. He hunches over further, desperately trying to untie Inui's bracelet, but seems to be having trouble getting at the knot because of the angle.

"Let me," Inui says. Kaidoh's hands go still the moment Inui's fingers brush across them. He works at the knot one-handed, outwardly focused on their bracelets alone, but actually more interested in the way Kaidoh's pulse is beginning to speed up, the way he can detect a faint tremor in his fingers.

"Ah." Inui would smile at his success once their wrists are free again, but Kaidoh jerks his hand away so fast it causes him to frown instead, and then Kaidoh is on his feet and grabbing his racket and heading back out the door.

"Sorry," he repeats, his voice a low growl, and he hurries away.

Inui looks down at his lap, which is still littered with rainbow, and then at the seafoam bracelet clenched in his hand. A quick glance at his watch tells him he has only two minutes now to get to practice, so he hastily stuffs the handful of bracelets into his right pocket, hesitating when he looks again at the seafoam one. He turns it over in his hand once, and after a beat slips it into his left pocket before heading outside, hurrying to catch up with Kaidoh.

After all, he can't tie it by himself.

_end_  



End file.
